This is where Mallorca’s first Wind Phone is going to be. 🌬️📞
This beautiful corner of the grounds at Joan March Hospital is going to become a small garden for reflection and remembrance, with a Wind Phone at its heart.
The path is already in place – and, importantly, it is accessible to wheelchair users.
Three of us met there to talk through the next steps: Marie Timlin, President of DIME Paliativos, Oliva , social worker for Joan March Hospital and me representing the Giving Life to Death Festival (Dando Vida a la Muerte). We have the space, we have the cabin, we have the phone and we have the garden design.
Now we need to make the garden happen. 🌱
When I was doing my death doula training in 2019, we had to choose a religion or spiritual practice that was completely unfamiliar to us and do a presentation on it. I chose Shinto, which led me down a bit of a rabbit hole into Japan, the 2011 tsunami and, eventually, the Wind Phone.
I’d never heard of it before and it stayed with me. So when the opportunity came up to create one here in Mallorca, it seemed like a very good idea to revisit something I’d discovered all those years ago.
The Wind Phone was created by Japanese garden designer Itaru Sasaki after he lost his cousin in 2010. He built a small cabin in his garden and placed an old, disconnected telephone inside it. He found comfort in talking to his cousin there and imagining that the wind would carry his words to him.
After the 2011 tsunami, Sasaki opened the garden to people who had lost loved ones, and the idea of the Wind Phone began to spread.
There are now hundreds of Wind Phones around the world, and Amy Dawson has lovingly created a directory of them in memory of her daughter Emily.
As far as we know, there isn’t one in Spain.
So, together with our friends at DIME Paliativos, we’re setting up the first one here in Mallorca.
The Joan March Hospital has been incredibly supportive and has found a beautiful corner of its grounds where the Wind Phone will be placed. The idea is to create a reflective garden that anyone can visit.
We already have the cabin, and we have the phone too. That’s thanks to Kira Ball, who has also designed the garden. The hospital has already laid the path, including wheelchair access to the phone. Now we need to create the garden.
We need plants – succulents and other non-invasive species suitable for Mallorca – as well as decorative stones, wooden benches, a jacaranda tree, soil, an irrigation system, signs and all the other bits and pieces that go into making a garden.
We’ve calculated that we’ll need around €3,000 to make it happen.
So, if you’d like to help, there are a few ways you can do so.
You can make a donation directly to DIME’s bank account (ES70 2056 0004 4310 0055 1828). Please put “Proyecto Wind Phone HJM” as the reference so they know what your donation is for.
You could also talk to your favourite garden centre and see if they might match your donation with a gift voucher (probably doubtful, but you never know!), or ask a local construction or landscaping company if they might be able to help with decorative stones, soil, transport or other materials.
And, of course, sharing this post helps too.
This isn’t just about creating a telephone in a garden. It’s about creating somewhere people can go when they want to talk to someone who has died.
You can say whatever you want.
You can tell them you miss them.
You can tell them you’re angry.
You can tell them what has happened since they died.
You can say goodbye.
Or you can simply pick up the phone and talk.
And the wind can carry the words.
And have a look at what DIME does too. Their 50+ volunteers visit the palliative care units at Joan March, General and Manacor hospitals, as well as people’s homes with the ESAD home palliative team.
You can also come along to one of the Death Cafés that we regularly organise, or get involved with the Festival.
There are lots of ways to support this work, and every bit of help makes a difference.
Thank you. 🌬️📞
